


The loyal man

by freaksout



Series: A game of chess [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/M, Hurt Tony Stark, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:27:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27744466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freaksout/pseuds/freaksout
Summary: When Harold "Happy" Hogan had signed for that job, he didn't know he would have become Mr. Stark's friend. And certainly he didn't know what Mr. Stark was suffering by the hands of his vice-CEO Obadiah Stane. But Happy would be loyal to his Boss, and help him and Miss Potts to fight against the monster!
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Happy Hogan & Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Obadiah Stane/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: A game of chess [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2029513
Kudos: 23





	1. An "Happy" man

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part of the series "Monsters come at night", which takes place before Iron Man 1. Each work of the series is related and tells the point of view of different characters.  
> Everything in the chapter is completely fan-maded or a rielaboration from the comics (see end note).  
> Please, note that English is not my first language, so apologies for every mistakes!  
> Hope you enjoy!  
> (updates on Monday and Friday)

When he was born, her mother had asked his father to name him as he wanted to, because she couldn’t care less. And his father has chosen the name of his own Irish grandfather: Harold. Before him, her mother has given birth to Harold’s sister, Stephanie, and to the twins, Jacob and James. After him, his parents were blessed by two other twins, Gilbert and Drew, and after less than a year by the little Gwendoline. She survived only three months, before dying of whooping cough due to a condition of her lungs.  
Growing up as kid of a numerous and poor family in the suburbs of a great town in California, Harold Hogan started early to take small works around their town, by helping here and there when they needed a strong guy to make errands or to unload the groceries. As his father, since childhood Harold was a strong kid, quickly become a tall and though boy. He could have easily turn himself into a gang boss around but he has a major flaw: he was kind. It was around 10 when everybody started to call him with the nickname he’d carry on for his whole life: ‘Happy’.  
And indeed he was the most happiest person on Earth: he had a big funny family, some money to go see the movies or play with his friends, an elder sister who took care of him like he was his mother, and he has entered the boxing club with high expectative.  
However, as it often happens, the transition from childhood into adulthood opened the door to disillusion.  
It started with family problems and tragedies, but also on realistic expectations for his personal future. After a disastrous fighting season, it turned out that Harold Hogan was not that good at boxing to make it a way of income, neither was good in school or in the different manual activities he tried during the period. He had a solid constitution and big muscles, but apart from intimidating people in the corners at night, he apparently couldn’t do much more. And intimidation quickly stopped to be effective after they saw his big round face always with a smile on it, or heard his gentle and calm voice.  
In High School two ways opened in front of him: being bullied or becoming one of the bullies. He choose, inadvertently, the first path, only to be thrown away from school when he once answered a fist with a fist. Given the different sizes, he made the guy who had attack him flying all the way through the main corridor, right on the headmaster’s feet. Turned out the guy was the son of one of the main sponsor of the school, while Happy’s father was a mechanic previously retired for a workplace injury (it was his fault for not having adhered to the safety measures, the judge told him while opposing to his request of financial assistance). 

Even without a job and without a formal instruction, Happy had to force himself in maintaining a positive attitude: he started many different jobs, moved to live in his former gym basement in exchange for cleaning around every day. He basically made errands the whole day, he was occasionally enrolled on construction sites when they lack of hands, and he cleaned the gym and helped in coaching the youngest. It made enough for living alone and he was more than fine with that. He had no girlfriend nor he did want one: he was perfectly fine on his own and he didn’t feel the need of someone else to share his space. Some of the guys at the gym made fun of him by calling him a fag, while the old trainer pointed out he was the wisest because he didn’t have the trouble of a woman around. Happy wasn’t sure to agree with neither of them, but since High School he has learnt to talk less, smile more and, most of all, mind his own business.  
One evening he was at the gym as always and the toughest guys were chatting around, when one of them approached him and proposed him a job: he needed to get out of town, so he offered Happy to take his place as a bouncer in a nightclub. He’d rent him the outfit and everything, since they were more or less the same size, and he just needed to stay at the inner door and prevented troubles, especially when alcohol started to run. Since he had no money to waste, Happy was also quite clean on alcohol and drugs, so he made a good candidate. The pay for a working weekend was more than fine, so he accepted.  
He regretted it the second he put foot in the club. The loud music, the smells and the things he saw passing him by were enough to make his head spin. He recognized immediately to be out of place, like a country-boy invited at the rich guy’s party. But since it was just for two nights, he carried on. Turned out that the guy he was substituting had disappeared in Colombia or somewhere around there, because he was escaping US justice system for drug dealing. The cops interrogated Happy and others at the gym, but after his blood tests went back it was clear that he had just being used as an escape-goat (the deposition of the gym owner was also in his favor). What Happy didn’t expect was to be called by the nightclub chief and to be offered a job as bouncer for the weekends. They needed someone clean and reliable to clean their images after the scandal.  
He didn’t like it, but he needed money. And so he said yes.

_________________________________________________________________

Six months passed with the same fixed routine: working days around the town, passing from one job to the other, cleaning the gym in the morning, bouncer at the nightclub on weekends. On Monday morning, after the club was closing, he used to remain a little longer to help around the cleaning ladies: usually some assholes vomited in the fish tanks, on one of the platforms or on the couches, and they needed help lifting them and other things around. Happy was always glad to help them, since the cleaning ladies remembered him of his mother, who has done the same job till her death. Plus, some of the ladies were teaching him Spanish among other languages (back at school, Happy sucked in languages as well as in every other classes, but by chatting and making jokes he has learnt a lot).  
One Monday, since he was the only bouncer around there in the middle of the morning, he was the one the owner saw first and approached with a proposal. Apart from owning this modest club, he shared properties of other high class places around the town, and he has heard that a notorious billionaire was hiring new bodyguards and drivers for his new fancy mansion somewhere in Malibu. He thought that he could gain credits by signaling the right man for the job.  
The requests: previous working-experiences, not penal precedents, not history of drug and alcohol abuse, preferably singles and at disposal days and nights. The advantages: new outfits, tech gadgets, a free flat to be occupied till the end of the contract, and really good wages, including all sort of medical insurance. It seemed just perfect, so Happy immediately accepted without even asking who the chief would be.  
He was sent to do a job interview the day after, directly on the car circuit near Malibu. He had to ask the gym owner to rent him his car to arrive just on time. There are several other people waiting inside the circuit, forming a line that lead under a small tend not far from the tracks. Different sport cars were parked around, and one of them was rumbling on the circuit. He has expected to have competition for this job, but what he didn’t expect was the interviewer being a young woman, red hair collected in a rigid ponytail, a large smile and an inflexible look. She had already fired half of the candidates immediately after they’ve stated their names and she had checked on her laptop for their records. The reasons were always the same: previous cases of alcohol or drug abuses, or troubles with the justice.  
Happy swallowed heavily when it was his turn.  
“Good morning” the woman greeted him. “I’m Virginia Potts, Mr. Stark’s secretary. Your name, please?”  
“Happy… I mean, Harold. Harold Hogan.”  
She maintained her smile while quickly checked on her monitor. “It appeared you haven’t finished high school, Mr. Hogan” she stated.  
“No, Miss Potts.”  
“And you had troubles with the headmaster for a fight…”  
“Yes, Miss Potts.” He swallowed heavily, but she was still smiling.  
Then he saw her frowning, while looking at her monitor: “And it appeared that you were detained for suspected drug dealing activities… an unfortunate accident or so it seems…”  
“Y-yes, miss Potts. A mix-up… my fault, though…”  
She looked up at him, perplexed. “What do you mean your fault? Were you a drug dealer?”  
“Uh? No, no, miss Potts. It’s just that… eh… like I needed money, you know? So I accepted the work without asking why the guy was offering me his place…” he looked around. “Now that I think of it, I haven’t asked anything for this job either…”  
She stared at him for a while, and Happy was sure she was about to fire him alongside the many others. He just wondered why it was taking her so long.  
“I like you” she sentenced finally. “You don’t ask many questions, and you don’t have any legal pending histories, a part for this small mix-up… but who hasn’t nowadays?”  
He nodded, still trying to figure out if this was a long preamble before the bad news. That was how this kind of conversations, when his father asked him to leave the house and provide for himself, when his mother called him to announce the first of many other family tragedies, when the headmaster had called him in his office, and when the police had questioned him that night.  
So he was more than surprised when she heard her saying: “You’re hired! I hope you don’t mind wait over there with the others until the end of the interviews. Then I will provide you all further details, badges and everything else. You may want to have a look at the contract in the meanwhile. You could sign it later if you accept all the conditions, especially the part concerning the privacy and the sanctions for divulging information and pictures to journals and third parts.”  
She was handling him an envelope with a big sincere smile. “T-thank you, miss Potts” he replied, incapable of believing that it was happening.  
He moved to the place indicated, where other three very tough guys were waiting. He scrolled the papers in excitement. The others gave him a quick disdainful look: they appeared to be former soldiers by judging from their tattoos and the way they were acting. Happy knew he was supposed to be reading the contract, but he got quickly distracted by the cars parked around. He couldn’t help by coming near one of it, and curiously inspecting the wheels, the insides and the whole line: that baby was meant to run, and faster. He would have paid to see the motor, the hydraulic systems, the cylinders and all the rest hidden under the hood. When he was a kid he loved to run around the garage where his father worked, but he hasn’t never seen something like that.  
“Do you like it?” he heard a lively voice behind him.  
He turned to stare into a young man, a childish beardless face, sunglasses on, ripped jeans and a Black Sabbath t-shirt who would have benefit of the washer. He had a big smile on, and seemed incapable of standing still without moving from one foot to the other. He looked young, a bit shorter and surely thinner than him. Happy couldn’t get what he was doing around there, if he was the mechanic or something, but since he was polite he answered with a smile: “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to look inside one of these …”  
The young man (or boy?) came near him and took the keys out of his pocket. He opened the door, and then the hood. “It’s a new Maserati Spyder GT” he seemed really excited. “It’s a limited edition, so it has a modified version of the original Ferrari F136 engine, you know?”  
“What about the bore?” Happy asked, fascinated.  
The young man seemed to shine. “That has also improved from previous versions! And I am personally working on the cubic capacity to improve the speed while reducing the mass…”  
But then all of a sudden they heard miss Pott’s voice screaming to someone to step back, an acute note that strongly contrasted with the calm she had shown so far. They both turned towards the scream, in time to witness a tall man running pass her place, a gun in his right hand pointed at them.  
“STARK!” he shouted.  
Happy didn’t think twice. He saw with the corner of his eyes the other guys taking shelter, but he had to protect the thin man beside him. So he hugged him, and dragged him behind the car and then on the ground, covering him with his larger body. They heard two shots hitting the car, before they heard the man moaning in pain. Happy dared to look up through the car’s windows and saw the assaulter being forced to the ground by two big guys with professional uniforms, while miss Potts was quickly marching towards them with a worried look. He stood, also helping the other man to do the same. Contrary to him, the young one looked extraordinarily calm considered all the mess and the two bullets that have been fired towards them.  
“Tony!” she called. “Are you fine?”  
“Fine, fine…” the thin guy replied. “Big bear here dragged me down… bit impolite for our first date, but we can work on it…”  
He then addressed the woman with a large smirk. “And what’s this confidence in public, miss Potts? Am I not still your boss?”  
She looked like an annoyed teacher having to deal with a petulant pupil. “Right. Allow me to rephrase: are you fine, mister Stark?”  
Happy’s eyes widened, jumping from the short man to the red-haired woman, while his mind was slowly connecting the dots. So this was the famous Tony Stark, the notorious genius billionaire playboy philanthropists the cleaning ladies were so fond of and didn’t stop talking about. It was the same he saw in the magazines and on the news with expensive suits, expensive houses and… cars! He felt very stupid not to have understood it before.  
“Yeah! More than fine, miss Potts, despite your lack of security…” he heard the man joking to his secretary’s major discomfort. They looked like a couple in love, he thought. But then he turned towards him, holding his right hand: “By the way, I guess we haven’t been introduced. I’m Tony! Stark obviously… You can call me how you want, I guess…”  
He shook his hand still with incredulity. “Yes, Boss…” he said.  
“Boss?” the other asked with a surprise look. “Yes, I think it’ll work for me. Still I didn’t catch your name… Do you happen to have one like every other mortals?”  
“He is mister Harold Hogan, Tony” miss Potts explained before he could answer. “I’ve hired him just now as part of your new security team.”  
“I see! At least a wise decision in your working day… do you think I should give you a raise for this?” he was clearly joking, and she didn’t bother to answer. “All right, Mr. Hogan. It seems you’ve been hired since 10 minutes and you’ve already managed to save my life!”  
“Happy…” he said, hesitant.  
“What?” Tony Stark asked raised eyebrow. “Are you happy to have saved my life? I mean, you should obviously be since I’d be the one paying you…”  
“I mean, it’s my nickname…” he managed to say, interrupting the babbling. “People usually call me Happy!”  
He tried a smile, blushing through all his face and feeling very stupid for having said that out loud. To his surprise, the other man smiled back with enthusiasm: “Happy eh? Sounds good for me! I need happiness in my life!”  
Then he pat him on the shoulder. “Come on, Happy! I’ll show you the other cars, and then we challenge on the circuit… do you know how to drive one of these babies?”  
“I- I’ll think I can figure it out, Boss!” he replied.  
“Great! ‘cause I need someone ready to keep my peace…”  
And this is how Happy's life took an incredible new turn. Even if he soon discovered that how the biggest shining light of Tony Stark's life hided a monstrous shadow.


	2. The "horse"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Happy found out his Boss hurt and naked in his lab, he couldn't imagine the abyss of monstruosity that was going on... and how he has become a pawn in a complex game of chess!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for language mistakes... if you want to point them out in private, I will fix them :D

Harold “Happy” Hogan regretted a few things in his life, but certainly he never regretted to have gone to that job interview on a car circuit in Malibu. And certainly he didn’t regret to have protected an unknown young man who has lately revealed to be his new boss, the billionaire Anthony Stark. The friends called him “Tony”, and apparently many others who were not his friends but wanted to be close to him. And the list was indeed very long, from journalists hungry for gossip, to other inventors or CEOs needing a loan, to young women and men looking for a quick way to money and success.

Happy was not concerned with Boss’s sexual tastes. This didn’t apply to one of his former colleagues, quickly fired after miss Potts had heard a clear homophobic statement concerning Boss. What Happy was very concerned about was the ease by which Tony Stark appeared to be lured into those kinds of situations that usually lead to blackmailing, and, in some worrying cases, a call to a trusting doctor for intoxication. It also became quickly evident even to Happy himself that Mr. Stark had problems to stay alone, especially at nights, so he surrounded himself with people, not minding the others’ intentions. This usually meant that Happy had to kick someone away from him when his/her intentions became aggressively clear, and then that Miss Potts had to take care of the rest, including the many one-night appearances in Mr. Stark’s life. For a moment Happy had thought that Miss Potts and Boss would have ended up married, but they have broken up badly, and he didn’t know why.

He had also started to suspect that there was something unusual going on between Boss and his business partner, Mr. Obadiah Stane. Happy had this distasteful sensation whenever the tall and bald man was around. He remembered Happy one of his old uncles, one who was way too close to his older sister. It was not a pleasant memory or sensation…

But Boss said he was fine and that he didn’t have to worry about.  
___________________________________________________  
The only place in which it was possible to see Tony Stark alone and silent was his laboratory, which occupies all the basement in his fancy house in Malibu. Here, the genius created new technological devices, including learning robots and sophisticated weapons, improved his cars, and spent basically all the time he didn’t spend drinking or banging with someone in his room, without gender distinction.

There were only few people allowed in the lab, the first one obviously being Miss Potts, also known as “Pepper”. After only a couple of weeks, Happy firmly believed that Boss couldn’t have managed to survive one day without miss Potts’s help on everything: she was more than a secretary, and something in line of mother/fiancé/CEO of Tony’s private and public life. She was also the one who has instructed all the bodyguards on Stark’s main flaws and necessities, in particular the need of constant vigilance on the people approaching him. They have been supplied with special phones connected to their headphone and glasses, and to a sort of AI which both Mr. Stark and Miss Potts referred to as a living being called ‘Jarvis’: when someone came close, they needed to look at him/her or to state his/her name and the AI will provide them all the information. And Happy quickly grasped that the same information were sent to miss Potts and to a repository for further eventuality.

The second person allowed in Mr. Stark’s lab was his apparently only true friend, colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, a former college mate, even if Tony Stark has graduated from college when he was around fourteen or something. It was evident that Rhodes treated Tony like a little brother, and Tony was always more than enthusiastic to spend time with Rhodey. He had this habit to drag the colonel into fancy clubs, sometimes only the two of them, with the major concern not only of miss Potts but also of Happy himself. But at least they were sure that Mr. Rhodes would have protected Boss.

The third almost fixed presence in Mr. Stark’s life was Obadiah Stane, the former business partner of Stark senior and now vice-CEO of the Stark Industries. Stane was the one attending the bureaucratic part of the job, and usually Boss was very proud in talking to him at the phone and illustrating the new ideas he was working on. However, Mr. Stane was not allowed in the lab in the Malibu house, and Happy more than once concerned on why it has been ordered by miss Potts to keep her informed of Mr. Stane’s movements in the house. She also seemed very upset that Mr. Stane has been allowed access to the house itself. As always, Happy did as he was told without further questions, the most appreciated characteristics of his personality.

Among the other bodyguards who miss Potts has hired that day, Happy was the only one who has remained after the six months of the contract, while the others have quickly dumped for various reasons, including too high level of unpredictability of the subject to be protected and a supposed harassment. Happy didn’t get the others’ problem: yes, Boss loved to act out of plan, and that increased the risks on his security, but he offered a really good life and benefits in exchange just for having to deal with his weirdness… and he didn’t believe on the all harassment issue: Mr. Stark was a very tactile person, he loved to pat shoulders and he sometimes seemed to ignore the notion of people’s personal space, as much as other people seemed to ignore his own. It was not good for very prude or detached people, so in the end only Happy has remained as his fixed bodyguard and also personal driver. He had had other offers, but he had choose to remain by Mr. Stark’s side: he liked the guy, that reminded him of one of his youngest brothers, just way more genial and in need of friends.

And he has also heard Boss almost shouting at Pepper: “Do not take my Happy away!”.

And miss Potts has answered something in line of “It’d be the last thing I’ll do in my life, Tony! I like him too!”.

Happy felt very proud of himself for once in his life.

Through time, he and Boss have developed something close to a friendship: Boss asked his opinion on the young ladies and lads approaching him for a ‘private conversation’ and Happy had also showed him the best places to eat cheeseburgers (Mr. Stark was particularly fond of cheeseburgers maybe as much as he is for smoothie and, most of all, coffee). Boss also challenged him in racing with high-speed car and Happy found himself cheating to manage to win or at least keep Boss’s pace: those were the times he saw Tony really smiling with joy, as he was finally free from himself and just feeling the speed. A very dangerous behavior, as Miss Potts frequently reminded him. “Do not encourage him… not too much!” she has also reminded Happy.

In the end, Miss Potts has resolved to enroll other bodyguards only when needed, also because Mr. Stark has opposed at the idea of having other dumbasses around his house. He firmly argued that Happy was more than enough for his needs, and that he trusted him and him alone (this has favorably surprised miss Potts, who has given Happy one of her best warm smiles, that had made him blush till the point of his ears).

And so Happy had to deal with Mr. Stark alone and on a daily basis, but he never complained. It was a full time, 7 on 7 job, but indeed he didn’t find it very difficult, especially after all he went through. And the benefits were beyond amazing: he had an apartment on his own about 30 minutes away from Stark’s house in Malibu, and it was a luxurious and comforting one, big enough for his whole former family and even more, he believed. He had full medical insurance, including the dentist! Who could ask for more?

Once he had a car accident when he was going to work: he didn’t remember much of what happened, but he woke in a hospital, his Boss on a chair by his side with the most concerned look on his face. He seemed to have cried, even if Happy knew that it must have been his imagination or the sedatives. Boss and miss Potts gave him full time to recover, and they both visited or called him regularly. And when he went out of the hospital, Tony Stark himself came to pick him up and drive him home, with a not-so-quick stop to eat cheeseburgers. He was really a weird Boss, maybe, but of the caring kind.

For instance, after the first months, Mr. Stark has started to give him many tech presents for “Christmas” (even if they were in July!) and even for Happy’s birthday, an event he was surely reminded of by miss Potts, since notoriously Tony Stark was not fully aware of the month and day he was living in. Those presents included an amazing watch which worked as GPS and was connected to his phone, not to mention Stark’s former Spyder GT when Boss purchased a new model.

As for the job, Happy felt very anxious when Boss acted out of plan, that is the vast majority of the time. But sometimes Tony Stark spent days and nights in his laboratory, so that Happy could just relax, watching TV in the living room and taking whatever he wanted from the fridge and the pantry. Because the first thing that Mr. Stark has told him was “Mi casa es su casa”, so he could basically go everywhere in the Malibu house and do as he wished. And that included using the big Jacuzzi in the guests’ bathroom when he was officially out of duty. Since he has nothing to do, sometimes Happy just cleaned up the living room and the kitchen, like her mother used to do, with the major concern of Miss Potts who repeatedly told him he could avoid to do that.

Happy was seriously curious to see the private bathroom in the suite, and whether it was larger than the one on the guest room. But that was one of the two places no one was allowed to go with the exception of miss Potts and Mr. Rhodes.  
The lab was the second (or maybe the first) forbidden place with the two aforementioned exceptions. So Happy was quite surprised when one morning he was urged to go to the lab. It wasn’t really Mr. Stark to call him, but the living AI Jarvis, who ordered him downstairs as soon as Happy has set foot in the house.

He had arrived earlier than usual, but he had good reasons: it was a hot damn summer in California, and he couldn’t sleep well. So around dawn he had made his mind to just stand up and make breakfast, only to discover he had run out of coffee and every other good-to-eat stuff. Since he knew that Boss was going to be alone in his lab for the whole night, and maybe also through the next day, Happy thought he wouldn’t mind if he arrived at his house two hours earlier than usual and benefit of the huge reserve of coffee stored in Mr. Stark’s kitchen. Happy was also thinking that he might have also enjoyed the Jacuzzi in the guest room while waiting till Boss woke up or call for him.

He had made his way to the Malibu house in his usual good mood. While he was approaching, he had noticed a car running away from the house in the opposite direction. He thought that it was a bit weird since the past night Mr. Stark has gone down in his lab after dinner, by saying he had to work. And he was whistling an old ballad he used to whisper from time to time. He seemed fine.

Happy didn’t bother too much, since it was not an usual thing given the peculiar life-style of Mr. Stark: it should probably be a taxi taking away that night performer. Probably Boss felt bored and he called someone to make him a good company.  
So he was also not surprised to enter the house and see the living room a bit messy, with some of Mr. Stark’s clothes thrown around the place and a bag with sex toys left behind.

What surprised him was the immediate call of Jarvis, in a real upset tone: “Mr. Hogan, you need to attend at Mr. Stark! I’ve already called miss Potts! Hurry please, he’s hurt!”.

Happy frowned, looking frantically around before the AI added: “He’s in his lab! Quick! I’ll grant you access!”

And Happy didn’t have the time to be excited at the idea of going into Mr. Stark’s lab, because Jarvis’s tone has frozen the blood in his veins.

As soon as he went downstairs he was sure that something very bad has happened. The lab was a mess, with many things broken around. To his major concern he also saw blood spots, some of them looking fresh.

“Boss?” Happy called with anxiety. “Mister Stark?”

He only needed to follow the blood traces on the floor to find him, only partially dressed under a table, with cuts on his naked feet and hands, but with a major one running through his left arm, blood still running out of it despite the man desperate attempts to stop it. It was obvious that he had cut himself from the glasses covering the floor, but still he wasn’t obvious what had happened. Maybe an experiment that has gone terribly wrong?

Happy didn’t mind that, quickly running towards his Boss, removing his tie and rolling it up the man’s arm right above the cut to stop the bleeding. He only hoped that the artery hasn’t been cut, but he was no doctor and he couldn’t judge. He only knew to make pressure in order to limit the waste of blood. And then he remembered also that it was important to talk to the injured persons to keep them awake.

“It’s okay, Boss, don’t worry!” he said, by looking for the first time in his eyes. But what he saw was like a punch in the belly: Tony Stark, the eccentric genius, was just sitting there in shock, empty eyes staring at him in fear, trembling through his whole body and heavily panting. He seemed not to recognize him, like he was scared he was going to hurt him. In his life, Happy has already seen those eyes before, but never in his Boss’s face.

“It’s all right, Boss!” the bodyguard said. “I’m Happy, remember? Your Happy… I’m here to help you…”

After a while Tony whispered: “I fell down while working…”.

Happy was not a genius, he knew that even before the school teachers had confirmed it. But he didn’t need to have a high IQ to realize that it couldn’t be true. Maybe it was right that Mr. Stark has injured his arm falling on the debris on the floor, but it was difficult to think that a falling man has caused this mess all around, not to mention that he was also partially naked.

And now that he was observing him better, he had a black bruise under his right eye and on his cheek, like someone had punched him hard.

“Don’t worry, Boss!” Happy repeated. He gladly noticed that Tony’s left arm was not bleeding anymore, although the handkerchief was soaked. “Maye it’s better if we stand from this cold floor…”

He tried to help him standing, but it was immediately clear that he was in pain and had troubles walking. Without hesitation, Happy passed an arm around him to heavily support his Boss: during this period they have trained together in the gym, and Mr. Stark has tanned a bit, but he was still thinner if compared to the big bodyguard.

Happy noticed that there was a couch in a corner of the lab, and tried to carry him that way.

“No, no, please…” he heard Stark sobbing. “Take me upstairs… please, please not here… I- I need to be upstairs… clean… make coffee…”

The tone more than the words scared Happy to death: he maybe didn’t know the man for long, but he knew that he never ever asked for something like this, and surely he has never heard him begging like this. It was pitiful.

“All right, Boss… I- I keep you upstairs… don’t worry! I’ll carry you…”

It was extremely hard to make him through the stairs, because every step caused him pain. Tony was quickly crying on his bodyguard’s shoulder, eyes shut and practically laying on him like a dead weight. Happy had to make several pauses to allow Boss to catch his breath again and to avoid him to faint for the pain.

He didn’t know how much time it needed, but he managed to bring Mr. Stark upstairs and then finally into his private room. Boss was too tired and wasted to protest, and Happy moved him around like a puppet.

The bodyguard didn’t have time to notice that the room doors have automatically opened in front of them, probably by Jarvis’s intervention.

Happy was too focus on his Boss, who has collapsed in his arms. He managed to put him sit down on the bed, but as soon as he left him, he watched him bending over and almost falling off. He grabbed him again: he was trembling hard and his face was very pale, almost grey.

“Boss?” he called him. But in that moment, Stark started to gagging and then vomit on Happy’s shoes and on the expensive carpet.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” he babbled frantically. Happy was more scared by this than by everything else.

“It’s nothing, Boss, don’t worry!” he said, trying to calm him down. Since he had stopped vomiting, he cleaned his mouth with his own shirt, trying to look him in the eyes to assure on his conditions. The brown eyes that looked back at him appeared childish, full of dread and pain. He was trembling and Happy automatically took off his jacket and put around his Boss’s shoulders.

In that moment they heard the noise of the main door that slammed open, and Happy watched as Stark almost retracted into himself in fear, before hearing a known female voice shouting worried: “Tony?! Where are you?!”

“He’s here, miss Potts!” Happy quickly called out. They heard quick steps approaching to the room, and Pepper Potts rushed in, examining the situation with one look before reaching at Tony, sitting next to him and rubbing his back with one hand.

“Peps…” he murmured, astonished. “No… not the plan…”

“Yes, Tony, it’s me… keep calm… I’m here with you now! Breathe…” her voice was soft like caressing him with words other than with her hands.  
Happy noticed that Mr. Stark was calming down, taking big breaths in and out as she had told him to.

“What happened, Tony?” Pepper asked after a moment.

He froze again and then babbled: “I fell down while working…”.

Neither his tone nor his actual condition supported that claim. Pepper glanced a look at Happy, who was still knelt in front of his Boss without minding his new shoes stained with vomit.

She squinted her eyes a bit as for evaluating a possibility, but then she spoke again to Mr. Stark: “I need to call a doctor, Tony…”.

“NO! I’m fine!” the other immediately interrupted her, screaming. “I just need time to… need to clean… have to make coffee…”

She shook again her head. “Tony…”

"I’M FINE!” he shouted almost on the verge of hysteria. “Don’t call anyone! Stick to the plan! Clean… coffee…”

He managed somehow to stand with the silent help of Happy who tried to help him reaching the private bathroom. He waved him away and walked alone with extreme effort and pain, and then he closed the door behind him.

When they heard the noise of the shower, Pepper turned towards the bodyguard.

“Tell me what happened!” she hissed, furious. “And how are you involved in this!”

If Happy hadn’t been Happy, he would have had all the reasons to be offended by the not so subtle insinuation in her tone.

But Happy being Happy didn’t immediately get the sub-text and simply answered the question: “I found him down in his lab this morning. There were broken things and glasses on the floor, and also blood stains. He has cut his arm falling, or so he says. He wanted to come upstairs and I helped him here. Then you arrived, miss Potts…”

She was studying his face with the intensity of a detective. Happy was reminded of his questioning at the police station and swallowed heavily.

“When did you arrive?” she asked.

“Minutes before 7… could be 6:50 or 55.”

“Why so early?” she pressed.

“I- well…” Happy felt embarrassed under miss Potts’s look, but then he confessed. “I woke up and I had no coffee left at home, so I decided to come here earlier and make breakfast in Boss’s kitchen and maybe also use the Jacuzzi… Boss said he didn’t mind… he has very good coffee supplies… he said I could use the guestroom anytime…”

She seemed surprised. “Fine” she said, but her eyes were still suspicious when she asked: “But why did you go to the lab?”

But Happy knew this one, so he clearly stated: “Jarvis urged me to attend at Boss in the lab. He said he will provide access!”

“Actually” they heard the AI’s voice. “I’ve said you should attend Boss, and when you didn’t find him I told you that he was in the lab… you’re correct on the access!”

Pepper rolled her eyes at the specific, but then addressed Happy with a gentle smile: “I’m sorry for having doubted you… but I needed to ask!”

“I- no- no problem, miss Potts” Happy replied still without understanding the problem.

She looked around and her noise wrinkled at the stain and smell on the carpet. “Did he vomit on his own?” she asked.

“Yes, miss Potts. As soon as he was in here. I- I’m sorry for the carpet…”

“Don’t mind that!” she sighed. “At least he has already vomited out whatever he’d give him this time… a pity for your shoes, though.”

“Oh! Doesn’t matter. I’ll go grab something to clean…” and he removed his shoes not to get dirty around, before exiting the room and coming back with something to clean the stains on the floor, and a plastic bag for the shoes.

“What about the carpet?” he asked to Pepper, who in the meanwhile seemed to have checked the bed and all around for something before removing in part the coverts from one side. She was now taking a shirt, underwear and gym pants from Boss’s wardrobe.

“Roll it up and throw it in a corner near the pool!” she ordered to Happy. “I’ll get it cleaned or burnt later…”

He did as ordered, as always. When he came back he waited at the door, just witnessing as Mr. Stark has come back to the room, still weirdly walking and in pain. Miss Potts must have passed him the clothes into the toilet because he was already wearing them. She was fixing his left arm with a bandage and then she gave him a glass of water. He tried to protest a bit but she reassured him, and he drank it down. Then Pepper persuaded him to go in the bed, disappearing under a huge covert miss Potts was fixing around him: it was a very hot day, but Boss was trembling hard and sweating cold.

Miss Potts whispered something to Boss and then went out, closing the door behind her. She appeared extremely tired and worried.

“I gave him something to help him sleep for a couple of hours” she explained. “Jarvis, seal the room. No one in without my formal consent! This is the Life Insurance Protocol, and I’m credited to activate it!”

“Yes, miss Potts” the AI replied. “And I’ll take an eye on Mr. Stark... metaphorically speaking.”

“Shouldn’t we call a doctor, miss Potts?” Happy dared to ask her. He was very worried for his Boss: he hasn’t never seen him like this and he had witnessed at some of his after-nights performances or binges.

But miss Potts’s smile was sad. “We don’t have time now… And Mr. Stark doesn’t work fine with doctors… besides the cut on his arm has stopped bleeding. Maybe it was only superficial, but you surely helped, so thank you… And I will provide you a new suit, completed of shoes and tie.”

“Oh! Thank you…” he wasn’t expecting this.

She looked at the stairs going down to the lab. “I supposed we will have to check what happened downstairs…” she said.

“Boss said he fell down while working…” Happy replied.

“And do you believe him?” she asked, glancing at him one of her looks that made Happy swallowing in apprehension.

“No, miss Potts!” he answered, honestly. “Not for one second…”

She continued to stare at him for a while and Happy felt naked, like his hidden scars have been exposed in plain sight. Then she nodded silently, when she ordered: “Follow me.”

They went down to the lab silently. Now that he was not hurrying to help Boss, Happy could noticed that the lab didn’t appear like the normal mess you could find in an active working place: he clearly had traces of a fight, with objects smashed on the floor, which was covered with glass and other liquids pouring from the broken things around. Two of Mr. Stark’s robots, which Miss Potts greeted as Dummy and Bot-E, were already at work in putting broken things in a basket. Happy had noticed that Mr. Stark and Miss Potts interacted with robots and the AI as they were really alive. And really the two little robot arms seemed almost worried of what had happened to their creator, or at least that was Happy’s impression.

The bodyguard walked carefully, still without his shoes. His eyes were obviously attracted by the cars parked in a long row on one side of the lab, directly connected with Mr. Stark’s private park: did the assaulter arrive that way? Everything seemed in order though… with the exception of the first car near the lab: here Happy saw blood stains on the floor and two unusual things, that is a pair of male underwear and the remaining of a cigar. That was weird, because among the many bad habits of Mr. Stark, smoking was not one of them.

“Miss Potts!” he called the woman, holding the piece of clothes with two fingers. She was clearly looking for something else near the table but went there immediately.

“These are Tony’s” she stated, quite pale. “I- I’ve bought them… as every other things in his wardrobe, rock shirts excluded!” She sighed: “Did you find them here? Near the car?”

“Yes, miss Potts.”

She long observed the car, passing her hand on the fingerprints left on the front window. “He fought this time…” Happy heard her murmuring.

“He must have been drugged later… or it’s not effective anymore…”

Then she looked at the piece of cigar on the floor with open disgust, before kneeling looking under the car for something she didn’t find. Instead, she pulled out a striped black and white tie. Happy stared at it: for the little he knew him, mister Stark only wore a tie very rarely and only in public occasions, but surely not in his lab and not some old fashion kind like the one his secretary was holding.

“Miss Potts?” he dared to ask when the silence became too thick. “Do you think that Boss was…” he couldn’t finish. The thought has just taken consistency through his head, although he has always been present like a background note since he has discovered his Boss in the lab less than two hours ago. But now the reality stood in front of him, and Happy felt already sick, like trapped in a past memory destined to repeat again and again.

“I think it’s pretty obvious what happened!” she replied, coldly. She looked firmly at him in the eyes: “Tony Stark was working in his lab, and fell down, badly injuring himself. He will need to rest and recover for the next couple of days. Is that clear, mister Hogan?”  
Happy swallowed: that was a lie, she knew. She took good care of Boss, so why she was covering whoever has done this to him? Why did the ones close to you always try to hide the monsters?

“Miss Potts,” he said, determined for once at not being the simple obedient guy, “we both know that this is not what happened to Boss…”

“And what do you think happened to Mr. Stark?” she replied, her eyes reduced into cracks.  
But he was determined not to let the issue over. Not this time.

“He was working in the lab when I went away last night. He was alone. This morning when I arrived I saw a car running away. Then I found Boss hurt and partially naked in the lab. We found his underwear there. This tie is not his, so there was another person here… a man most likely. There are signs of a fight everywhere and Boss had a black eye. And he couldn’t walk properly…”

“So?” she pressed him.

“So someone must have entered into this house and then in his lab, has assaulted him and… raped him!” he stated.  
They stared at each other in silence for a while, then she challenged him again: “Even if you’re right and that’s what happened… why do you care? What’s the difference for you if I say that he has fallen while working, like he himself stated?”

“He’s _my_ Boss!” Happy didn’t realize he was almost screaming. “And I’m in charge to protect him, you said that yourself when I signed that contract! I am supposed to keep him safe… and now someone has assaulted him in his own house! So I need to know what happened to… to protect him better!”

He panted heavily: he was not used to talk this much and with this tone, and certainly not to his superiors. For a moment he took that she was going to fire him here and now, and then pursued him for whatever thing may appear on the press even remotely related to this issue. She has done that before with two of the previous bodyguards.

To his surprise, her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head in astonishment. “Oh Happy… I… I’m so glad you’ve come to that interview that day!” she said, with a sincere smile. “I’m so glad to have you here, by his side… our side!”

“So… you won’t fire me?”

“Fire you? Don’t play the dumb, you’ve just proved you’re not!” she exclaimed. She looked around, anger quickly replacing whatever emotions she was feeling since that moment. “You’re right. Someone went here and assaulted Tony in his lab… he believed to be safe here, this was his safest place and now it has been corrupted! He fought back, but it hasn’t been enough…”

“But how did they access here?” Happy asked. “I’ve put the security codes as always, and even if I forgot, Jarvis would have secured the house autonomously as always! And the lab is double secured… only you, miss Potts, and Mr. Rhodes have access here! I was granted access by Jarvis this morning for the first time!”

She sighed, and then called out loud to the AI: “Jarvis? Have your codes been overwritten yesterday night?”

“No, miss Potts” the AI replied with what sounded really as a sad voice.

“Could you tell us what happened then?”

“Mr. Hogan left at 9.03 PM after having had dinner with Mr. Stark, and washed the dishes. Mr. Stark was already in his lab. He told me he was going to work there all night to improve a new missile he’s expecting to present at the commanding officers two weeks from now in Afghanistan. Mr. Hogan has secured the house as he stated, but I double-checked as always!” Then the AI seemed to hesitate. “I- I was in energy-saving modality when I was turned down. I haven’t realized that I was offline till this morning at 6:53 when Mr. Hogan has inserted the codes and re-activated my system before entering the house. The codes must have refreshed the system and turned me back online. I realized that I’ve been down for hours, so I’ve checked immediately for Mr. Stark… as I found him in his lab bleeding, I urged Mr. Hogan to take care of him… In the meanwhile, I’ve already called you on the private line…”

Happy knew it was weird, but Jarvis sounded like a human being, and he was sorry and ashamed to have failed in protecting Mr. Stark. He felt also regrets, as if it was something that has happened before, as the AI was living again a bad experience of failure. A sentiment he could deeply rely on, because he was feeling the same.

“So you’ve been down during the whole time of the assault?” miss Potts was asking, her expression focused on the details. “You don’t have any recordings of it or of whom had approached the house?”

“That is correct, miss Potts, I don’t have audio or video recordings of what has happened to Mr. Stark from 11.07 PM till 6.53 AM. At both those times Mr. Stark was alone in his lab. I’ve run a diagnostic while you were attending to Mr. Stark: I was turned down at 11.07 by someone with direct access on my system.”

Miss Potts’s eyes widen: “Direct? Do you mean that someone has shut your system from the inside?”

“You are correct, miss Potts.”

“But that’s impossible! That was not the plan! And Tony has uploaded this security system by himself last week! No one has a key code to crack it…” then she shut herself, trembling at the idea that was taking form in her mind. Happy was worried for her, but she murmured: “Oh God… you don’t tell me…”

“I guess you are again correct, miss Potts” Jarvis said. “Mister Stark has turned me down himself. He opened the door to his assaulter, metaphorically and maybe also physically speaking... and it was not the plan!”

The gravity of this revelation hit Happy like a high-speed train. Everything seemed like an awful deja-vu, and made him feel very sick.  
“Who?” he managed only to ask. “Who could have done this to Boss? He went to his lab whistling… he was fine, happy…”  
Miss Potts seemed to regain her composure. “A more correct question should be not ‘who’ but ‘why’!” she told him. “Why did Tony turned Jarvis down?”

“M- maybe he has been forced to do…”

“No, he was alone when he turned him down. The other came later… so?”

That was a difficult reasoning for Happy and he scratched his head.

“He knew that he was coming” Miss Potts felt pity for him and explained out loud. “He also knew what it was probably going to happen… and his assaulter didn’t want any proofs of it or didn’t want Jarvis to call us the moment he realized what was happening. So Tony turned him down on purpose. If you haven’t arrived earlier this morning, Happy, I’m quite sure Tony would have managed to put himself back on his feet and then closed inside his room. I was supposed to be away all morning, and you won’t have entered neither his room nor his lab. When you’d arrive around 9 AM, Jarvis would have noticed that he has been offline, but once he has checked on Mr. Stark, he’d found him in his bed, probably sleeping. The lab would have maybe still be a mess, but Tony’s mechanical friends are already cleaning it and they will finish by noon. Around that time Tony would have probably awaken, and would have made a joke to you on an incredible night passed with a super-model he had called when you went away. Maybe he would have mocked you and promised to call one for you as well another time. You would have listened, smiled, and ordered him lunch. He would have eaten down in his lab, when no-one would have seen him throwing food away because he can’t eat much when this happens… He’d pass the whole day down here, until I’d arrive in the late afternoon with two guests for a new project... That was the plan… but now everything is messed up!”

Happy was astonished: she was so sure and her explanation so flat and plain that he wondered if that was an hypothesis she was just making out at that moment or… or maybe that has already happened before, maybe also in those months he has been enrolled as Mr. Stark’s bodyguard.

Now that he thought about it, there have been some occasions during which Mr. Stark was just weird… weirder than usual, that’s to say! And what was those plane both Miss Potts and Jarvis were referring to?

Miss Potts seemed to read in his mind (not a difficult task for anyone who knew him for more than 5 minutes, by the way…), because she looked sadly at him and added: “It has happened before, yes… And every time he made up the same excuse: ‘I fell down’. Though it’s the first time that it has happened here…”

There was a long silence. Happy thought he was still missing something so he asked: “I don’t get how Mr. Stark knew that he was coming… and even so, why he didn’t call me or you for help instead of letting him through? Oh God… I should’ve stayed here…”

She looked intensively at him.

“Okay, I guess that willing or not you’re now in the plan… Tony referred to you as the ‘horse’ so I guess it’s time you play!” she stated. Happy didn’t understand a word, but she was going on: “The person who called him didn’t want anyone to know even by accident! And as for you second question… I believed you already know the answer yourself, but I make things easy: whoever came here knew how to contact Tony on his private number, and had enough information to force him to do something horrible instead of asking for help. So now I’m asking you, Happy: you’ve spent lots of time around him, how many people do you think are so close to Mr. Stark to have both these information and also to know that yesterday night he was alone in his house in Malibu?”

Happy’s brain was processing all these information: he may not be brilliant but he knew how these things work out. And usually it involves someone near you, someone in the family… but Tony’s family was all there: taken apart himself, who was just his bodyguard and a very bad one, there was Pepper and colonel Rhodes. But he was sure neither of them could have done something so horrible to Boss. And the colonel was also abroad, busy in a mission at the border between Afghanistan and Iraq, as Boss himself has told him yesterday evening. Who else was left?  
The idea hit him like a thunder the moment he looked again at the tie miss Potts was still holding in her hands. A black-and-white tie, expensive texture but an hold style. He has seen it already around the neck of a big, though and bald man. A big man who, by coincidence, was also famous for smoking expensive cigars… like the one near Happy’s naked feet.

When he looked back at miss Potts, she nodded at him silently, a disgusted expression running through her face while tears were starting to form in her eyes. “That’s why I told you to inform me on his movements!” she murmured. “I- I thought that was enough knowing when he came here and to be sure Tony was never alone when he was around him… but it hasn’t been enough! Nor it was having moved to this expensive house so far from everything else!”

For Happy it was like being thrown back in time, with the persistent sensation of reliving the same experiences. Back then they’ve tried to change house, make some space between them and him, but it hadn’t been enough. Monsters always find a way to their victims.

“I should’ve stayed here with Boss…” he murmured.

“Don’t blame yourself! It’s not your fault!” Pepper said firmly. “The only guilty is the monster that has done this, don’t ever forget that! But now it’s almost over!”

In that moment Jarvis’s voice broke the air with a frantic tone very unusual to him: “Miss Potts! I noticed that Mr. Stane has arrived at parking!

He’s approaching the door. What should we do?”

Happy and Pepper stared at each other, fury, rage and fear running quickly in their minds and veins.

“SHIT! It’s too soon!” the woman exclaimed.

“I have my gun upstairs!” Happy said. He didn’t carry it around the house, because it was not safe and it caused again bad memories: it was how one of his brothers had crippled himself.

“NO!” miss Potts stopped him, physically grabbing at his shoulder. “We can’t!”

“WHY?” Happy was very upset. “We both know what happened here! We know that it was…”

“Don’t say it!” she hissed, tense. She was trying to put the ideas together, to think clear of a strategy, but she realized that the other didn’t know what she knew. But she hadn’t time to explain, though she needed him by her side. So she said: “Happy, listen to me! Tony has voluntarily turned Jarvis down and opened the door to him, perfectly aware of what was going to happen… and this wasn’t the first time! That monster has something valuable, something he’s using to put pressure on Tony, to force him doing… this! And despite all our efforts, we haven’t been able to stop him so far! But THIS was part of a plan… it’s a game of chess and it’s complicated… But you have to believe me, Happy! We are trying to stop him! I’m trying to protect Tony! But I can’t do it if he killed himself because of whatever Obadiah Stane has against him!”  
She had practically spitted his name with an incredible hatred, that persuaded Happy to believe her against every possible odd. He knew how these things worked. He has witnessed it personally.

He nodded slowly.

“I’ll always be on Boss’s side, miss Potts! And on yours as well!” he answered. “What do you want me to do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This concludes Happy's point of view on the story... next story will take inside the head of the monster: Obadiah Stane!

**Author's Note:**

> The whole background of Happy is completely fan-made. I've based his character on how he was played by the amazing Jon Favreau in the MCU. The scene of the meeting btw. Happy and Tony Stark is based on the comics (even if in the comics Happy saves Tony from a burning car).


End file.
